A CALL TO ARMS 45 



house; like welcoming the doctor's arrival upon an 

 occasion nf ^iriripn ar>H gpygro ii] ri p^^ i ' Unfortunately, 

 the patient's alarming symptoms sometimes continue; 

 sometimes the thief makes a clean get-away ; King John 

 had no sooner left Runnymede than he proceeded to 

 ignore the Great Charter and plan new and heavier 

 scutages upon the people! 



Up till now the elevator owners had been operating 

 with nothing more definite than a fellowship of inter- 

 ests to hold them together ; but upon appearance of the 

 nrpin Aft they proceeded T;o organize the North West 



Elevator Association, afterwards called the North 

 West Grain Dealers' Association. By agreeing on the 

 prices which they would pay for wheat out in the 

 country and by pooling receipts the members of such 

 an organization, the farmers suspected, would be in a 

 position to strangle competition in buying. 



The new Act was aiming point blank at these very 

 things by affording the farmer an opportunity of load- 

 ing his grain direct into cars through flat warehouses, 

 if he chose, and shipping where he liked. But because 

 many farmers did not know with just what the new 

 weapon was loaded or how to pull the trigger, the rail- 

 ways and elevators merely stepped up and smilingly 

 brushed the whole thing aside as something which were 

 better hanging on a high peg out of harm's way. 



The crop of 1900 being comparatively light, the ignor- 

 ing of the car-distribution clauses of the Act did not 

 obtrude as brazenly as it did the year following. But 

 when grain began to pour in to the shipping points in 

 1901 and the farmers found the railway unheeding their 

 requests for cars their disgust and disappointment 

 were as complete as their anger was swift. It was the 

 rankling disappointment of men whose rights have 



